Founder and Successors

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This booklet contains the life-sketches of Sri V. Krishnaswami Iyer and his two sons, Sri K. Balasubramania Iyar and Sri K. Chandrasekharan and equally distinguished daughter, Smt. K. Savitri ammal. It also includes the life-sketch of Dr. V. Raghavan.

Sri V. Krishanswami Iyer was the founder of the Madras sanskrit College in 1906. After his death in 1911, Sri K. Balasubramania Iyar took over the management of the college and he was mainly responsible for the establishment of the sanskrit Academy, Madras in 1927. Prof. Mahamahopdhyaya S. Kuppuswami Sastri was a distinguished sanskrit School and in memory of Porf. Kuppuswami Sastri, Balasubramania iyer established the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Instituti in 1944.

In the year 1958, Smt. K. Savitri Ammal made a munificent donation to start, in her name, the Savitri Ammal Orienttal Higher Secondery School. Dr. V. Raghavan was closely associated with the Sanskrit College and allied institutions and he founded the Samskrita Ranga, an organisation devoted to the enactment of Sanskrit dramas. All these personalities had made great contributions in the propagation of Sanskrit studies and research.

Krishnaswami Iyer was a leading lawyer who became the judge of the Governor’s Executive Council. Krishnaswami Iyer had associated himself with the Indian National Congress in the early years. His life should be an inspiration for the younger generation.

Balasubramania Iyer was a member of the Madras Legislative Council, continuously for 15 years, from 1952 to 1968. When I was Minister in the Madras Stats from 1952 to 1962, Balasubramania Iyer was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Council. He took an active part in the proceedings of the Council and had made valuable contributions which were very useful for the ministers. He had sound knowledge in banking and finance.

I hope this booklet will be welcomed by the public and particularly by the younger generation. This booklet gives an idea of how men in public life should function for the benefit of the general public without any selfish motive.

The life-sketches of sri V. Krishnaswami Iyer, Founder of the Madras Sanskrit College and his successors, Sri K. Balasubramania Iyer, Smt K. Savitri ammal, Sri K. Chandrasekharan and Dr. V. Raghavan were given in the souvenir brought out in connection with the Navaratna Mahotsavam (completion of 90 years) of the Madras Sanskrit College and the Birth Centenary Celebrations of Smt. K. Savitri Ammal, Founder, Savitri Ammal Oriental Higher Secondary School. It is considered appropriate and useful to bring out a book containing the life-sketches of these eminent persons for the benefit of the present and future generations.

Sri K. Balasubramania Iyer, eldest son of Sri V. Krishnaswami Iyer and secretery of the trust for nearly 35 years, carefully nurtured the college, established by his illustrious father preserving the objectives for which the College was founded.

Smt. K. Savitri Ammal, daughter of Sri V. Krishnaswami Iyer, founded the savitri Ammal Oriental Higher Secondary School by giving a munificent donation from the money inherited from her father and enhancing it by many times, through careful mobilisation of her financial resources with the help of her two brothers Sri K. Balasubramania Iyer and Sri K. Chandrasekharan. The School was established in the years 1958 in the immediate presence of H.H. Sri Chandrasekharandra Saraswati Swamigal of Kanchi Kamakoti peethem.

Sri K. Chandrasekharan was the Secretary of the Trust for 18 years from 1970 to 1988, after the death of his elder brother Sri K. Balasubramania Iyer. During the period the College got the financial assistance from the Goverment of India under the Adarsh Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya Scheme from 1977. This greatly benefitted the staff of the college in getting enhanced emoluments and other connected benefits. He also looked after the welfare of the other institutions subsequently established within the Sanskrit College premises, viz., the Samskrita Academy, the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute and the Savitri Ammal Oriental Higher Secondary School. He was also President of the Samskrita Ranga from 1979-88.

Dr. V. Raghavan, though not related to Sri V. Krishnaswami Iyer and his children was closely associated with them and with the activities of the Sanskrit College and other organisations. He founded the Samskrita Ranga in 1958 for the purpose of enacting Sanskrit dramas and for propagating Sanskrit through the same. He was also one of the Founder Secretaries of the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute. He was a well-known Sanskrit scholar of international repute and was greatly respected by all Sanskrit scholars in India and abroad.

It is indeed very kind of Bharat Ratna Sri C. Subramaniam to have given an excellent Foreword to this booklet greatly enhancing the value of the work. Sri C. Subramaniam is an elder statesman of great eminence and has the unique distinction of being considered the Father of the “Green Revolution”.

The Institute is happy to bring out this publication on the occasion of the valedictictory Function of the Navaratna Mahotsavam Celebrations of the Madras Sanskrit College.

The Vignesha Printers are to be thanked for the neat printing and nice get-up.